Category: Publications

Short stories published in 2017

“Rudy’s Revenge”, published by Alliteration, Ink in No Shit, There I Was. This anthology is a collection of stories all beginning with the phrase, “No shit, there I was…”

No shit, there I was, trying to get one of the new clowns—guy who called himself Rudy—to back down from an ace-high straight. “Dude, don’t bet a witch doctor your immortal soul,” I warned. Most of the new guys would have listened. Most of the guys in the room were shaking their heads in disbelief.

“The Smell of Home”, published by Dreaming Robot Press in 2018 Young Explorer’s Adventure Guide. This anthology is the fourth in its series. Each year the publishers collect science fiction stories appropriate to middle-grade readers regarding exploring. They emphasize diversity in characters and situations.

I knelt on the porch, the bare pads of my toes cooling on the cement. The late summer sun hadn’t made it around to this side of the house yet, and the roof kept the porch a good ten degrees cooler than the grass, except where the shadow of the cable bisected the field.

Caroline said our house needed guarding because of the cable. It was slate grey, wider than an oak, and it soared through our roof into the sky and out of sight. Caroline said thousands of lives depended on it.

Other stuff

If you’re more of the User Experience or Design wonk, you may be interested in:

You can also buy it on iTunes, at Barnes & Noble or at Kobo. Or ask your local bookstore to order it (if they don’t stock it already) — the ISBN is 978-1940924250.

There are a lot of really awesome stories in this book, and they’re all worth a read. It’s a middle-grades book, but then, so is Harry Potter. That just means everyone from middle-grades on up will enjoy it 🙂

The 2018 Young Explorers Adventure Guide is out on December 1, and it includes a story I wrote called “The Smell of Home”. The book is aimed at middle-grade readers and higher (essentially 12+ ears of age) and has a lot of fantastic stories about setting off on adventure.

The book was given a starred review by Kirkus.com, which is an Exciting Thing as they only star roughly 10% of their reviews.

I’d be lying if I said I thought my story was the reason we got the star, but I’m damned honored to have my work included in the anthology with so many fantastic stories.

One of the things I like about this particular Kickstarter is the number of tiers specifically dedicated to donating copies of the anthology to libraries. The goal is to give kids works that they can see themselves in, and I think we’ve got a great anthology to do just that.

I’ve sold “The Smell of Home”, a story about what it means to be where you belong”, to Dreaming Robot Press! It will be published in the 2018 Young Explorer’s Adventure Guide. The Guide is a yearly anthology of middle-grade science fiction. They believe in publishing for a diverse range of characters and situations, which makes me proud to be one of their authors.